Bankbeater

Hello and welcome to the forums.

I know my reaction time has slowed a bit, but the bass are working with me. They just pick up the bait off the bottom and start to swim slowly off with it. Maybe I'm catching old bass?

Are you sure the bass you're losing are hooked good? The bass around here have been biting but not eating. I have been letting them run with the bait for a few seconds to make sure that the hook is in their mouth. @Team9nine is spot on about the jumping. It's not the jump that throws the bait, it's all that head shaking that come after the bass has cleared the water.

In some of the local small lakes I fish, catching a bass is like firing a flare into the sky. People just come over and start fishing around the spot. After not catching anything, the other anglers will move somewhere else and I get back to boating fish.

The first thing I learned bass fishing was that no two bodies of water fish the same way. Just because a certain bait has been catching in one lake or pond doesn't mean it will work in every lake or pond.

Most of the local fishing spots around here open at 6 or 7 a.m. so night fishing is out. I take plenty of water and look for thick vegetation for the fish to hide in, and shade for me to get in.

Zoom finesse worm or Creme Scoundrel. I start off weightless and then add weight as needed.

I haven't found any lures since around the end of May. What I have been finding are rods. I found an Abu Garcia Hank Parker spinning rod and a Berkley Fusion casting rod on the same pond about 2 weeks apart. Both are in good shape, but you can tell they have been used. My wife asked me why I was bringing them home instead of putting them in the trash dumpster. I told her BPS Spring Classic!

I'm not buying it. At some point you are going to have to call tech support for this thing.

During the summer I catch more with a 1/8 jig with some type of craw trailer on it. Casting a 3/8 or 1/2 jig is a waste of time.

Fluke, Senko, and plastic worm. Weightless is the only way to go in the vegetation.

When I was a kid my dad and his friends would take me fishing and after about 6 or 7 hours they would be ready to come back home, I would complain because I wanted to stay and fish longer. They used to say "You'll be our age someday". These days my fishing trips are 6 to 8 hours long.

Happy Birthday!

I don't know about hydrilla, but it wiped out the lilypads in one of the small lakes I fish in.

@TOXIC I had the same problem years ago with the ArmorAll protectant. It looked good when it was first applied but after a while, the dashboard and tires cracked and looked rotted. I was advised by a body shop to stop using that product. The cleaner on the other hand has always been top notch.

Welcome to the forums. Sorry I can't be of any help. I'm on the other side of the state. Did you check the MO. Conservation website?

I've had better luck with the Baby Brush Hogs than with the regular size Brush Hog. I get a lot of bluegill bites with the regular size.

Most of the time I fish an unpainted weight the way it comes from the store. If I want to change the color then I use a Sharpie and make it black.

Welcome to the forums.

When they first came out I saw a lot of anglers fishing with them. These days I never see anyone fishing with them.

I'll try a spinnerbait and a lipless crankbait. When the bass are just hanging there and not moving too much, I will try to circle them and cast at them from different angles. If I don't get any bites in 15 or 20 minutes I move on.

Wow, that's cool!

I can take the heat pretty well so I stay out of the water. The one time I did go in for a swim I was retrieving the top half of a two piece rod and that pond water wasn't the cleanest.

For years we used Bee-Jay bait. These days I'm using cut bait for catfishing.

That's great news!